Ireland, and took Wexford, though he subsequently had to surrender at Carrig. Other adventurers followed, among them Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, surnamed Strongbow. Henry had forbidden him to go, but he was anxious to marry Eva, daughter of Dermot; and in defiance of the prohibition, he sailed with an expedition from Milford Haven, gained some success, and eventually succeeded to the kingdom of Leinster.
In the meantime Henry, perceiving that his adventurous subjects were forestalling him, set about making preparations for his own expedition, and formally recalled all Englishmen from Ireland.[1] The adventurers, instead of complying, humbly placed all their present and future conquests at the king's disposal. This was not entirely satisfactory; yet Henry, while pushing on his preparations, concluded an agreement that he should have all the seaports, and granted the rest of the country, to hold of him and his successors, to the conquerers. It would appear that Strongbow returned for a time to England, probably to take part in these negotiations.
A fleet of four hundred large ships, with an army embarked in them, was at length assembled in Milford Haven. Henry went on board, and on October 18th, 1171, landed at Crook, near Waterford. The greater part of the island submitted without resistance, even Roderick O'Connor, King of Connaught, the most powerful of all the kinglets, doing homage; and Henry celebrated Christmas in Dublin[2] with much splendour and magnificence. The real conquest, indeed, so far as it was effected by force of arms, was effected by the adventurers and not by the king, who, having established garrisons in the principal seaports, and consigned the administration of his new possession to a Justiciary, returned to England on the following Easter Monday.[3]
A rebellion, headed by the queen and her sons, drew Henry into war with the Kings of France and Scotland, the Counts of Flanders, Boulogne and Blois, and many of his own subjects. There is no record, however, of any important naval operations having been undertaken in the course of the campaign, from which Henry emerged victorious in 1175. There were, nevertheless, some naval incidents. In July, 1174, the king, with numerous prisoners,
